Bayelsa to empower traditional birth attendants

Bayelsa Government has pledged to empower traditional birth attendants in the state as part of efforts to promote quality and affordable healthcare for the people.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitulah Etebu, made the pledge on Tuesday in Yenagoa at the Inter-Ministerial and Agency briefing.
The briefing, organised by the state’s Ministry of Information, was to enlighten the public on the achievements of the present Governor, Seriake Dickson in the past six years.
Etebu said it was important to empower the attendants so they could practice global trend in child and mother care.
He added that the state government was collaborating with health officers in rural areas to identify traditional birth attendants with a view to training them on global best practice.
Etebu said: “There are series of trainings for traditional birth attendants by the state government. Right now, we are making plans to recruit them into N-power programme so that they can benefit from government employment.”
On Governor Dickson’s score card for six years , the commissioner said he performed satisfactorily in the establishment of health facilities across coastal communities.
He said: “We built referral hospitals in all the eight local government areas of the state; the essence is to get adequate attention to health related problems in the rural areas.
“The state specialist hospital with cardiovascular and stroke centres is completed; the diagnostic centre, drug storage and distribution centre, which we call “Drug Mart” are also completed.
“We also finished the construction of the house officers’ quarters at Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, and established School of Basic Midwifery.”
The Chairman of the occasion, Kemela Okara, described Govenor Dickson’s developmental strides as “the best in the history of Bayelsa”.
Okara urged the people of Bayelsa to desist from destroying government projects, saying it was inimical to the growth of the state.
He urged residents to take ownership and protect government utilities as part of their civic responsibility.
Daniel Mackson-Iworiso, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, said the briefing was put together to showcase how far the state government had done in terms of infrastructure development.